Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1887-08-11
THE WILD FRESHMAN.
The Fast Train From London tn HoIyhead
En- route to Dublin and Queenstown.

which carries the American mails from
London to Holyhead, en- route to Dub
lin and Queenstown. 1t drives down
from Euston TO Chester at speed of
forty miles or more an hour, and issul-
ing from that quaint, gabled. and gal
leried city through gap in the SPLEEN
did walls. it continues on its course to
Holyhead along the picturesque shore
of North Wales.
Many Americans travel by it, as in
leaving or in joining the Atlantic
steamer at Queenstown they can save
several hours by taking this route, but
it is usually night when they are borne
along, and the journey finds no dwell
ing-place in their memories. :. Pre-
cipitous cliffs frown down upon the
meteor-like train; on one side are the
stormy waters of the st. Georges chan
mel, and on the other the mountains
descend without any intervening foot
hills; but by means of tunnels, en-
bankments, and viaducts every natural
obstacle in the route of the Wild Irish
man has been overcome.
The distance between Chester and
Holyhead is accomplished in less than
two hours; tubular bridge spans the
Menai Strait, the ferrying of which
formerly led to many tragedies; an
other bridge is hung over the Conway
River, and Penmaenmawr is pierced
by tunnel, through which the train
winds like ring through the nose of
a savage.
When the train leaves Chester it al
most Immediately crosses the bound
airy line between Cheshire and North
Wales, and for the rest of the distance
to Holyhead it is in that country.
On the other side of the train lies q
country of increasing hilliness- land
scape like that of England, with tran
hedge-rows, matched cottages, and the
solid-looking sculpturesque foliage
which is Il sort of atonement for tec
persistent humidity of the climate.
Hawarden, Mr.. Gladstone's seat, is
about two miles of the line, and about
twenty minutes after leaving Chester
the train runs close against the walls
of Flint Castle-a gaunt mass of naked
rock, upon which decay has set no sign
of regret, and age has put no assuag-
ing mantle. The castle was built by
Edward L., and Shakespeare has mate
its crude ribs" and catered" battle
ments one of his scenes in his play Of
Richard III
Behind the hills which slope down
to Flint is Holywell, town which de-
rives its name from miraculously CO.
pious spring, of such efficacy in heal
ing that the beautiful gothic shrine
built over it, and ascribed to the gem
crosby of the mother of Henry VII, is
hung with the crutches and trusses Of
those who have been cured by bathing
in it.
The Wild Irishman scarcely slackens
its speed at Rhyl, the Hat and rectaG-
gular little Watering place whose l.oisy
excursionists from Lancashire ana
Yorkshire battle in a yeilo" mixture ol
mud washed down from the Dee and
the Mersey. But presently we cross a
river which, flowing down FROM be.
tween hi@h hills, cmpties INTO Tie sea
within sight Of the train, ii Il point.
whore massive hcaila1d iu!s out
ward, and reaching tae farther side,
we are borne Under tire shadow of Il
cliii-lkc wall. We look on .,d up.
and there are towers, balticmeatS. aau
parapeta These arc 50 .l.@j, and tho
train is so close to the base, Caat sc
haze to almost dis.ucate oHr neck IN
order - see the summit. IT II Il cas-
tie, not cliif; bnt il seems 20 grow
out Of the rock up0a which ii stands,
and when it was built nature and art
joined hands to give il double
strength
When Edward !. had conquered the
Welsh he butt three great castles 10
keep the vanquishcd down, ana though
dismantied and despu.led, t.icy are
still very substantial examples of the
architecture Of his time; one IS at Car
narycn, another at Bcanlaris, and the
third is this at Conway, the common
name of the river we have Just crossed,
the castle, aud the little town which
lies under the castle, Shut within a
harp-shaped wall which formerly had
twenty-foar round towers.
\ minute or two after the train
leaves Conway the mountains begin to
crowd down upon the Wild freshman,
and threaten to shove the line into the
sea. 1t is these that the traveller from
America sees from the deck of the
ocean steamer as she passes up the st.
Georges Channel to Liverpool. They
are northern spur of the Snowdon
range, and among the huddled masses
rises one, very Gibraltar of peak,
higher than all the rest.
Once again we are in darkness, but
this time the reverberations are not
those of tunnel. The sounds are hol-
low and metallic; we are crossing the
strait by the vast tubular bridge which
Stephenson built between 1915 and
1850, and which put an end to the fire.
quent accidents that had previously oc-
Cured to passengers crossing by the
ferry The Britannia Bridge, as it is
called, consists of eight tubes resting
on three towers, and it spans the
stream at height of 104 feet. 1t is
1,S41 feet long, and the tubes are said
to contain II 400 tons Of iron. Some
. felIow-passenger is sure to put us in
possession of these dimensions, but we
who have seen the Brooklyn Bridge
can listen unmoyed, and give him in
return the statistics of much greater
achievement.
One end of the bridge thatby which
we enter-is in CarnaryonShire. and
when we reach the other we are in the
island of Anglesey, the Mona of early
English history, and the last refuge of
the Druds. 1t is not very large
island, only twenty miles from north
to south, and twenty-eight miles from
east to west. The surface is rolling
and (if such word can be employed
to describe anything in nature) COM
monplace, but, except in the straits,
the seward edge is long line Of
cliffs of varying height, ut whose feet
many ship has come TO grief. There
are many Druidical remains on the
island, cromlechs and other cnigmati-
cal masses of stone which the old hier-
archy of the woods has left unex-
planned, and it was in Anglesey that
Suetonius burned the last of the Druids
in their own altar fires.
A few miles from Holyhead we pass
within short distance of Aberflraw,
the seat of the native Princes of Wales,
and thus the Wild Irishman completes
its course, and lands us at the gang
way of the channel steamer.
It is then that we discover what an
empty. noiseless little place Holyhead
is. 1t is the nearest port to Ireland,
and that is, and always has been, the
reason of its existence W. II. Ride
ing ia Hdrper'e Magagiae.
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